Pongo Teen Writing Project

Volunteers from the Seattle nonprofit Pongo Publishing help youth in detention write about their lives. Pongo has worked with more than 4,000 teens in youth prisons, homeless resource centers, and the two mainstays of the program: a children’s psychiatric hospital in Lakewood, Washington, and the nine-year-old program at the King County Detention Center. The poems and stories are published in annual anthologies and are available through pongoteenwriting.org.

The Pongo Publishing Teen Writing Project is a volunteer, nonprofit effort with Seattle teens who are in jail, on the streets, or in other ways leading difficult lives.

The project helps these young people express themselves through poetry and other forms of writing and publishes annual anthologies of their work. Here is a sample of the poems written in their workshops.

I WISH SOMEONE HAD TOLD ME

I wish someone had told me that life was like this,and I thought I was not going to end up in here,and it happened.

I wish someone had told me that love was like this,intimate,and no lying, cheating, stealing, robbing and all that,because it does not have to be like this.

I wish someone had told me that friends were like this,they turn on you and get you in a lot of trouble,and I wish I would have known that before I put myself in that predicament.

I wish someone had told me that I was a kid.I wish that I can start my life over and do what I have to do to better myself.

I know these things are true because it happened all in my life,and I experienced it, so I think it can be true.

I know these things are true, but still,I wish someone had told me.

—written by a 16-year-old boy in juvenile detention

ANONYMOUS

I wish I was a better child.I wish I could take back all the times I made my mom cry.I wish I could take back all the times I’ve hit my little sister.I wish I had everything I wanted.I wish I wasn’t in Juvenile.I wish I was still a virgin.I wish my brother wasn’t dead.I wish my cousin was never born.I wish that I wasn’t a drug addict.I wish I wasn’t an alcoholic.I wish I went to school when I was younger.I wish I wasn’t in a gang.I wish there wasn’t so many rules in this world.

I wish my life was as good as I want it to be.I wish I could take back all the times I made my dad mad at me.I wish I could take back almost killing somebody.I wish I was still young.I wish I wouldn’t have grown up so fast.I wish for nothing else to happen to me.And that’s all I wish.

—written by a 15-year-old girl in juvenile detention

NOT FEELING CARED FOR

I feel aloneLike a deer that’s just been bornBut its mom diedLike the only flowerIn a fieldLike a pool of waterIn the middle of the desert

I feel desertedLike an open piece of candy on the shelfThat nobody wants to buyLike a box of kittensAnd I’m the last one in the litter to be pickedLike an un-ironed pair of pantsThat nobody wants to wear

I feel the need for loveA squeeze of lemon in my glass of waterA breeze on a warm summer’s eveA whisper in my ear that tickles

—by a 16-year-old young woman in juvenile detention

RUNNING AWAY

Running awayWhen I was a kid that is all I didRunning away from a lot of thingsBeing raped by someone I knew who Said he would kill meRunning away I said no, and he punched meSo I gave up to take itAll I seen is blood, so I closedMy eyes until it was overRunning away Because I didn’t know the true meaning of loveRunning away to drugs, weed to relieve my painUntil I explodedRunning away is not how I want to Deal with my situationNow I want to changeWhen I am not running awayI will ask for help…..Help

—by a 16-year-old young woman in juvenile detention

IF GOD WERE LOOKING AT MY LIFE

He’d wonder why I sin so much.He’d understand that I’m a whole man, That I take care of myself.He’d know the way things had gone. Bad. My parents don’t care about me.He’d remember when I was very little. I was Confused because I wasn’t with my real People.He’d know that I’m trying to change.He’d know how hard it is to change. The people I deal with are the people that raised me, My friends. They’ve got me confused.He’d want me to understand that life is better Than I’m making it.If God opened a new door for me, It would lead me to my childhood again.Then I could start all over with my life. Be treated like a human. Not treated As a thug.